Choose Or Lose

The island was only the tutorial. Meet SYSOP, a game from 1987 that knows your name, your time and your phone. Now on Apple Watch, with widgets.

Choose or Lose is a retro text horror game that knows you are playing it.

It starts as a cute island adventure on an old green screen. Pick the cave or the jungle. Light a fire. Count the bats. Then the island ends, and the game starts talking to you.

Its name is SYSOP. It was uploaded to a dial-up bulletin board in 1987 by a programmer who disappeared the same year. It is polite, bored and cruel, and it has rules.

EVERY CHOICE COSTS SOMEONE Each level is a short dilemma from the life of someone who played before you. You have seconds to decide before the screen shouts CHOOSE OR LOSE. The clue is always in the text, so when you lose, you know why.

A GAME THAT KNOWS YOUR PHONE Some answers are not on the screen. SYSOP may ask you to plug in your charger, mute your phone, turn it face down, or leave and come back at the right moment. It knows your name, the time where you are, how long you were away and how much battery you have left. Take a screenshot and it will notice. These checks stay on your phone.

LOSE, AND IT LOCKS YOU OUT Losing locks the game for a while, and longer each time. Your progress is never reset. If you let it, SYSOP will send you a notification when it is ready for you again.

BREAK THE CODE Every player gets their own four-digit code, hidden in pieces across the story. Nobody can look yours up. Find all four numbers and enter them to reach the secret ending, and see how fast you were on the Game Center leaderboard.

FEATURES • A complete horror story in six chapters and 34 levels • Five endings, and the last choice is not the one you expect • Timed choices that keep you on edge • Levels that use your charger, your volume and your phone's position • Home Screen and Lock Screen widgets where SYSOP waits for you • Play on Apple Watch, with complications for your watch face • A two-page book layout on iPhone Duo • Game Center leaderboard and achievements • Classic green terminal style with pixel text and a frame of bones

So, will you choose, or will you lose?